248 Prof. Silliman’s Address before the 
greatly circumscribed, and restricted within the limits which sci- 
ence and sound reason prescribe. Happily, it is the less neces- 
sary for me, on the present occasion, to trace the effects of water, 
since they have been, along with the general powers of geology, 
so ably elucidated by our distinguished foreign guest,* in his 
learned, elegant, and instructive works. In regard to our seientific 
and social relations, we will not however view him as a foreigner, 
while we salute him as our associate and friend. For to him, » 
more than to any other or all other writers on geology, we owe 
our recovery from the illusions of dreams and visions, regarding 
imaginary powers supposed formerly to exist, but to have become 
exhausted or greatly enfeebled or even extinct, in modern times. 
He has proved to us, that the powers of nature are the same now 
that they have ever been; that except the act of creation and 
the first outbreak of the new-born elements and energies, there 
was nothing in the geological laws of former ages different from 
the present ; and that the causes now in operation, acting with 
or less intensity, are sufficient to produce the effects of 
earlier epochs. ; 
hese positions are sustained by an ample train of induction 
from facts, drawn from a wide range of geological history, as 
well as of laborious, exact, and acute personal observation, carried 
on through many countries and through a long series of yeals- 
We account it therefore a privilege to have made his personal ac- 
quaintance, and many of us have been favored with opportunities 
of witnessing his methods of illustrating, in public lectures, the 
science which he has so successfully cultivated. Our fine packet 
ships, and still more the winged Atlantic steamers, have so much 
diminished the difficulties and delays of the passage, that we may 
expect a more frequent renewal of the visits of enlightened and 
cultivated individuals from Europe. 
In 1839, Dr. Daubeny took a rapid survey of our country, and 
after his return, favored us with an interesting summary of out 
eology.. We believe that no gentlemen from the scientific fac- 
ulties of the English universities had ever before examined the 
i ahem enn eg 
mee 3 € l Esgq., was in the United States from the first week in August 
0 July 16, 1842, and being present in the Association of American Geologists 
ton in the last week of April, 1842, took part in their debates. See abstract 
n the first number of this volume. 4 Pe 
